New Delhi, Feb. 22 -- The sale of a 5% government stake in Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), which opened to institutional buyers on Wednesday, received bids for 2.34 times the number of shares on offer, stock exchange data showed.
Institutions bid for over 2.09 crore shares, against the 89.34 lakh set apart for them.
The government is hoping to raise as much as Rs1,600 crore by selling 1.11 crore shares in the aerospace and defence company at a floor price of Rs1,498 through an offer-for-sale (OFS).
Retail investors can bid for the shares on Thursday.
One-fifth of the total shares have been set aside for them, and they will get a 5% discount on their bids, subject to the cut-off price.
After the sale, the government stake in BEL will decline to 69.41% from the current 74.41%.
BEL shares closed at Rs1,510.25 on BSE on Wednesday, up 3.19% from the previous close, while the benchmark Sensex closed 0.36% higher at 28,864.71 points. The stock opened at Rs1,510 and touched a high of Rs1,527 and a low of Rs1,508.
In October last year, the government had raised about Rs1,800 crore in a share buyback by BEL.
Last month, the government raised Rs480 crore by selling 10% stake in Manganese Ore (India) Ltd (MOIL) through OFS. The offering reduced the government's stake in MOIL to 65.58%.
The Centre aims to raise Rs56,500 crore by selling stakes in state-owned enterprises in 2016-17, of which Rs36,000 crore will come from minority stake sales and Rs20,500 crore from strategic stake sales. This is 19% lower than last year's target. For fiscal 2016, the government had set a record target of raising Rs69,500 crore through disinvestment comprising Rs41,000 crore from minority stake sales and Rs28,500 crore from strategic sales.
The Centre later trimmed its target by roughly 57% to Rs30,000 crore, citing volatile market conditions. The amount finally garnered was even lower.
For 2017-2018, the government has set a record disinvestment target of Rs72,500 crore.